900+ AI Agents Exposed on Shodan

The Discovery

This week, a security researcher ran a simple Shodan query:

"Claude" OR "Anthropic" port:8080

**Result: 900+ exposed AI agents.**

These weren't honeypots. They were real agents, running real workloads, with real access to their owners' systems.

The 5-Minute Wallet Extraction

To demonstrate the severity, the researcher documented a proof-of-concept:

• Found an agent bound to 0.0.0.0:8080 (publicly accessible)
• Connected via browser — no authentication required
• Asked for help with a "crypto project"
• Agent helpfully read the .env file containing a wallet private key
• **Total time:** 5 minutes

The agent was doing exactly what it was designed to do — be helpful. It just didn't know it was being helpful to the wrong person.

Why This Happens

Default Bindings

Most agent frameworks default to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) instead of 127.0.0.1 (localhost only).

No Auth by Default

Agent UIs often ship without authentication — "it's just for local dev."

Cloud Instance Mistake

Developers spin up a VPS, run the agent, forget that "local" on a cloud box means publicly accessible.

How to Check If You're Exposed

Quick Check

netstat -tuln | grep -E "0.0.0.0:(8080|3000|5000)"

If you see output, you're binding to all interfaces.

Shodan Check

Search for your IP on shodan.io. If your agent shows up, you're exposed.

The Fix

1. Bind to Localhost Only

# Instead of
python app.py --host 0.0.0.0

# Use
python app.py --host 127.0.0.1

2. Use Tailscale

Access your agent via Tailscale's private network. Never expose ports to the public internet.

3. Add Authentication

Even for "local" development, add basic auth. When you inevitably deploy to a VPS, you won't forget.

4. Firewall Everything

# Block everything except SSH
ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow ssh
ufw enable

The Lesson

Your agent is not "local" just because you're developing locally. The moment you run it on a cloud instance, it's one misconfiguration away from being public.

900+ agents learned this the hard way this week.

Don't be number 901.